Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Book:  Admission 

Author:  Jean Hanff Korelitz

Grade:  C- 

Recommended to:  I'm not sure, People who like long books. 

I picked up Admission for 99 cents on Amazon.  Of course. I feel like I don't even need to say this part now because I always get my books on Amazon, for dirt cheap.  Obviously, I love it.

Things I do not love, including this book, but there were some parts that were okay and actually kept my attention.  This book is about Portia and admissions counselor at Princeton and her relationships.  There's this big secret in the book that they don't reveal until the last 50 pages or so, but there is some textbook foreshadowing throughout the entire novel.  Plus, unfortunately the movie preview, the new one with Tina Fey, ruins the surprise early on without all of the detail.

I really enjoyed the parts about the admission process.  It was interesting to read about how the admissions decisions were made (at least in this fictional account).  But, the book was so long.  At least 500 pages and I felt that much of the narrative could have been cut.  There were long descriptions of particular applicants that I don't believe the reader was ever meant to remember or interact with.  Plus, the book included long essays from the students that were just mod podged into the middle of the book.  Booooring.

I didn't like the characters much.  I hate when characters don't talk to one another.  Maybe it is because I have very very few secrets (actually, I can't think of any major secrets), that it is so ridiculous when a character doesn't just say what they are thinking to the person they are thinking it about.   Seriously, Portia leaves the house of this guy she really likes in the middle of the night and then never calls him.  That is such strange behavior and I have no idea why a 40 year old woman would do something like that.  Those parts of the main character irritated me.  

This was a very average read.  I'm not sure if the book convinced me to watch the movie, it just wasn't good enough to be compelling, even though I like Tina Fey.

So, perhaps watch the movie and take a pass on the book.   The movie, at least, will be shorter!

Happy Reading!!

K2

Book:  K2 - Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain

Author:  Ed Viesturs with David Roberts 

Grade:  C- 

Recommended To:  Mountain lovers who can over look poor writing. 

I love reading books about mountain climbing.  Just like I love reading books about polygamists.  But, sometimes, in those two categories, you pick up a real miss.  K2 is one of those books.  I bought this at Borders for 1.50 when it was going out of business and I remember being so excited that I found this book for that cheap.  Really, thank God it was so cheap.  I would have rated this book even lower if I had paid more.

Then I started reading it.  I have to admit up front that I didn't finish it.  You've all seen my to read pile, and I just can't afford to keep reading something that I'm annoyed with.  I have too many other deliciously good books waiting for me. 

The first chapter is about Ed's own attempt to climb K2.  I loved Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air so I thought this book was going to be like that - but I was wrong.  Ed mostly just prints excerpts from his own journal and then either criticizes himself for thinking that at the time, OR uses those excerpts to bolster his criticism of how other people in his party handled the mountain. 

This guy comes off sounding like a total jackass.  Sure, he was the first American climber to climb all of the 8000ers (those are mountains that are higher than 8000 meters).  But, instead of sounding like a wizened and seasoned climber, he instead sounds like a whiny teenage girl, bitching about how others could have made his life and his climb easier.  Ugh. 

The rest of the book is about the various expeditions that have attempted K2 over the last 100 years or so.  Ed, thankfully, doesn't incorporate much of his journal, but the research seems half-assed.  It is as though he found a few letters from each time period, read the books that are already in mass print, and then sifted though for the drama.  This book could belong on MTV. 

I'm bored with Ed.  I'm bored with his writing style, his story, and his extremely pompous attitude.  Do yourself a favor and read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer if you want a good book about mountain climbing. 

Happy Reading!!

The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt

Book:  The Summer Without Men 

Author:  Suri Hustvedt 

Grade:  C MINUS

Recommended To:  poetry loves, middle-aged women, married people. 

This book was wretchedly disappointing.  The back snippet made it look awesome - this lady needs a break from her husband who has been cheating on her, so she moves back to her hometown to spend time with her mother and teach a bunch of 13 year olds how to write poetry.

Unfortunately, this book did not live up to even my slight expectations.   The narrator's husband tells her he wants a "Pause"  just like that too - with a capital P and in italics every time it is written in the book - this causes her to have a total mental collapse and she lands in a mental hospital.  Which sounds interesting right?  Except it isn't.  She recovers quickly and then takes a break in someone else's house for the summer.

Can you tell already that there is a lot going on in this book that doesn't intermingle at all?  I just get so tired of books that are  just about someone's life and nothing interesting happens.   There is one point where the narrator feels a "presence behind the door" and for some totally inexplicable reason she's terrified, but there isn't anyone there.  She chalks it up to ghosts that she has "felt her whole life." My God - I hope she got raptured yesterday, so that I never have to read about this narrator's life ever again.

I think the real problem is that this author tried too hard to make her character deep, but then didn't wait around to tie all of the pieces together.  You are left with this character that is fully "developed" but hasn't gone anywhere or done anything during the book.

Finally, this book is chock full of poetry - I don't love poetry, I don't read it, write it, or really understand verses that don't rhyme.  So, when I see a song or a poem in a book, I usually, out of habit, just skip over it and keep reading the next lines.  That sucks for this author, who I'm sure spent a lot of time finding poems that fit with whatever she was trying to do in this book.  I'm bored with poetry - and I was bored with this book.

In general, I gave this book a C minus - mostly because there aren't any grammatical errors or anything too egregious.  But, it was barely worth a C because it was pretentious, boring, and generally an eye-roller because of the stream of consciousness writing.   Sigh, I'm glad I won this book, but I will be passing it on quickly.

Happy Reading